Quantum Simulation: Mimicking Complex Systems

By Lavanya Singh

Quantum physics may sound confusing and complicated but it is just the way atoms (and even smaller things) function and molecules form. It is the way the tiniest things in the universe behave.

Simulation refers to the copying of something complex so we can understand how it functions without actually touching it. Like making a robotic cheetah instead of a real cheetah to study how it runs without chasing after it.

Putting these two ideas together we get quantum simulation. In order to study quantum physics, scientists try to mimic them through quantum machines without actually looking at the real thing. Quantum machines are nothing but a kind of computer that actually understands or “speaks” the quantum language. Regular computers use bits and bytes, but quantum computers use qubits (quantum is far too tricky for normal machines).

Quantum physics is supposedly the next 'big thing' because it is helping scientists create drugs for pandemics, studying space without actually going there and spending billions on rockets, designing stronger and lighter materials for airplanes, making better batteries and a lot of other mind-blowing things. Quantum simulation can even model the RNA of humans!

In short, quantum simulation is like this very cool science lab inside a computer which can find solutions to problems that we don’t even know exist yet.

CERN and the Golden Myth: Can Lead Really Become Gold?

We’ve all heard the old idea of turning lead into gold. For centuries, people actually believed it was possible. While those attempts didn’t work out, today’s scientists have been able to pull it off. CERN, one of the biggest science labs in the world, is located on the border of Switzerland and France. It’s famous for the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), which is a 27 km long underground tunnel where particles are sped up to near light speed and then smashed together. If you’ve seen Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, there’s a collider in that movie that opens portals to other dimensions. CERN’s collider doesn’t do that, but it’s still one of the most powerful machines on Earth. Lead has 82 protons, and gold has 79. That means to turn lead into gold, you’d have to somehow remove 3 protons from each lead atom. This needs a nuclear reaction, which only happens under extreme conditions and high energy. CERN isn’t trying to make gold, but their experiments show how changing o...

The Study of Nuclear Fusion: From Stars and Hydrogen Bombs to Tokamaks and Inertial Confinement

By Hiranya Bose 10 O (AIS NOIDA) To understand fusion, we need to understand nuclear energy, which can simply be defined as the energy released by the nucleus of an atom. As of now, the only two processes known to man through which nuclear energy is produced are fission, and of course, fusion. Splitting the atomic nucleus in 1938 was big news, now we’ll see why joining atomic nuclei is even bigger news. Current Energy Production Currently, humans have only been able to produce nuclear energy for commercial use through nuclear fission – which is the splitting of a heavier atomic nuclei into lighter nuclei. A neutron is forced to collide with a heavy atom, like that of Uranium-235. Collision takes place and the nucleus is split into lighter nuclei – it’s exothermic – and this releases nuclear energy. More neutrons boil off from the split nucleus and collide with more heavy nuclei, leading to a chain reaction. The minimum amount of fissile material required for such a self-sustained chain...

Time Dilation: How time slows down near black holes or at high speeds

By Ananya Choudhary 11A Time dilation is a concept from einstein’s theory of relativity, describing how time does not pass the same way for everyone, everywhere. Depending on two main factors- speed and gravity, time can move slower or faster for different observers. This means that time is not absolute, but rather flexible, depending on conditions in space and motion. According to einstein’s special theory of relativity, when an object moves at extremely high speeds, close to the speed of light, time appears to slow down for that object relative to someone who is not moving. For example, if a person were to travel in a spaceship at very high speeds, time would move slower for them than for people left behind on earth. To the traveler, everything would feel normal, but when they return, they would find that much more time had passed for those who stayed behind. This effect has been observed in real world experiments, including with highly accurate clocks flown on airplanes or orbiting ...

The Physics Club, AISN

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